Does my use of Carmeli’s cosmology provide a valid solution to the starlight-travel-time problem?

This question surfaces occasionally. I am sent queries sometimes, especially when a creation speaker runs into someone with a background in physics and/or that creationist is challenged as to the plausibility of the model I presented in my book, Starlight Time and the New Physics.

In the book I developed an idea of a cosmological model based on Moshe Carmeli’s Cosmological Relativity theory. I used Carmeli’s cosmology to create a biblical creationist model for the origin of the Universe, with a timeline that includes the 6 days of Genesis creation beginning about 6000 years ago. I took parts of Carmeli’s big bang cosmology and added biblically based hypotheses (and speculations) to make it conform to Scripture.

The main text of the book outlines a sketch of how history the Universe would have unfolded if the cosmology and resulting cosmogony were a true for our Universe. The theme is that new physics is needed. The appendices 1-5 of the book are there to show the reader that the underlying theory (Carmeli’s theory) can explain what we observe in the Universe, where new physics was added, and thus what we build on that should also be valid. Appendix 6 is where I theorised about a Creation scenario. That is totally my own work, even though I extrapolated from Carmeli.

That means it is no longer Carmeli’s cosmology but a sort of hybrid cosmology. Carmeli only constructed a 4 dimensional (4D) space-velocity model for the Universe. He never found a full 5D model for the whole Universe, which might be used to construct a history close to the Creation epoch. I theorised on a new model–call it the Hartnett-Carmeli model if you like–which is 5D. I added the time dimension to Carmeli’s space and velocity dimensions, to create a linearised 5 dimensional model, something like an extension of special relativity but in 5 dimensions. That is shown in appendix 6. I then used that, making additional assumptions, to explore the idea of rapid time-dilation during Creation. The additional assumptions involved direct intervention by the Creator as might be expected during Creation. If the resulting scenario is a description of the true history of the Universe then that also provides a solution to the starlight-travel-time problem.

I do not claim it is the answer but if God did something like I describe it could provide us with an understanding of it. It is a possible solution and I admit there are several potential areas where the solution may be found. Adding new physics may be a simple way to avoid many fudge factors in cosmology but it does mean adding a new dimension that is very hard to even conceptualise.

Carmeli’s model is able to describe the Universe without dark matter and dark energy. That is very appealing, but it does not make it the correct cosmology because other models have been developed that claim something similar. Carmeli did attempt to apply a 5D formalism to the dynamics of galaxies, but not the Universe as a whole. I took that and applied his physics to both spiral and spherical galaxies and found good agreement with observations but without assuming any dark matter content in the galaxies. It also applied to various galaxy types. However I was always bothered by Carmeli’s derivation of the 5D physics used there and even confronted him one time about it. He made a simplifying assumption on a very-difficult-to-solve integral, which I do not believe is valid. I even had a postgrad student work on the problem for a while but that same student picked up some other problems with Carmeli’s formalism whilst studying his last book.

After his death in 2007, out of respect for Moshe and as a favour to his widow, I edited Carmeli’s last book “Relativity: Modern Large-Scale Spacetime Structure of the Cosmos,” preparing it for publication in 2008 by World Scientific. For several years after that I was hopeful to develop fresh ideas for a description of the cosmos that might then also be co-opted into a biblical creation model. By 2013 I published my last paper using his 4D space-velocity cosmology. During those years I found several inconsistencies with his ideas, particularly in that last book, and also I made no progress on finding a full 5D biblical creation model that could be rigorously used to describe the early creation epoch. So what I wrote in my book “Starlight Time and New Physics” remains only a sketch of what I hoped would crystallise. I have continued to explore the realm of higher dimensions, especially with time, in an effort to find a theory that has some of the formalism of Carmeli that worked so well, yet without the inconsistencies.

Research is an ongoing endeavour. It is never really finished. We must remain open to new ideas that can flush out the old yet bring in a fresh understanding to what the Scripture describes in the first book of the Bible where (Genesis 1:1) God said in the beginning (about 6000 years ago) He created the Universe (the heavens and the earth).